Rise with the Sun
by futurejelly
Summary: Rei is a healer living in a small Earth Kingdom village, but she harbors a dangerous secret. When a certain injured prince needs her skills in healing, she has to confront her past and decide what it will mean for her future.
1. Indentity

**This is my first Avatar fic and I'm a little nervous. Be gentle. I hope you enjoy!**

**P.S. You can think of this as an extreme rewrite of the Zuko side of the episode "Cave of Two Lovers". **

It was just after sunset and a sudden pounding on my door startled me so much that the rice and vegetables I'd been eating went flying all over the table. Thank the spirits I hadn't been drinking my tea, because I would have burned half my face off (forgive the pun). Being the village healer, these calls weren't exactly out of the ordinary for me. Usually when there's a knock at my door at this time of night, it's someone sick or a small injury. The big accidents from the mine outside of town are always earlier in the day before the Fire Nation soldiers in charge of cracking the whip go home. I brushed some rice off my brown tunic and went to see which poor, reluctant soul needed the help of the crossbreed healer. With my hand on the door handle, whoever was on the other side of the door knocked again, louder, and shouted, "Please, please open up!"

_Must be an emergency. _I flung open the door to see a rather fat old man standing in my doorway. He was so wide that at first I didn't notice that he was supporting the weight of another man whose arm was slung around the thick neck. The next thing I noticed was the fact that the smaller man was covered in severe burns. His dark hair, though short to begin with, was singed almost to his scalp on the right side of his head, which hung down with his chin touching his chest so I couldn't see his face. He was shirtless, and his torso was covered with angry red blisters and charred skin. I've seen this kind of injury before because of the occupation, but I'd never seen one so severe. I closed my mouth long enough to step aside and say, "Bring him in."

He did, hauling the dead weight of the injured man inside- he must have passed out long ago from the pain. The old man showed much more strength than I would have thought possible, and I was grateful because I don't think I would have been able to carry the injured man. I led him quickly back to my healing room and told the old man, "Lay him on this table, on either his back or his stomach, whichever side has less burns." The healing room is just a small alcove off of the main room, but it has a door, a window, and shelves surrounding the healing table in the center, which is all I've ever needed. I washed my hands and started to gather the herbs and salves used specifically for burns from the shelves lining the walls of the room.

"It's bad on both sides! Please, oh please help him." The old man sounded frantic, so he must have been close with the younger one. Maybe his father, or grandfather. Once I had the necessary equipment, I returned to the table to see he'd laid the patient down on his stomach. I checked the man's pulse and found it a little fast, but within normal range. Then I checked his breathing, which was labored but I wouldn't be able to get an accurate diagnosis until I took care of the pain.

"Are you his family?" I asked the old man.

"He's my nephew." He said, his voice thick. I look up to see tears rolling from his panicked eyes.

"Okay," I tell him. "You need to pull yourself together because I'll need your help with this."

The old man sniffed loudly and nodded. I took a deep, calming breath and then went into healing mode. "Okay. In that drawer, you'll find a length of cloth. Bring it out and soak it in that water basin. Most of these burns aren't too bad, the blistering looks worse than it is." I gestured to the one running along his mid-back and up his shoulder. "But this one looks deep, maybe into the muscle. I'll need to get healing herbs in him right away and we're going to have to force him to stay hydrated so he can heal." As the old man got the cloth, I poured some of the water from the pitcher I always keep handy onto the burn. I thanked the spirits that he was still unconscious. Burns can be excruciating, though this part of him was burned so badly that the nerves might have been gone anyway. Still pouring water on the burn, I turned to the old man and said, "Now I need you to stoke the fire," I nodded toward the smoldering fireplace to his left, "and get a pot of water to boil. The pot is in the kitchen next to the table and the well is immediately out back." He scurried out of the room without question. It wasn't completely necessary to get the water boiling just then, but what comes next is often hard for family members to see. To prevent infection, dead skin has to be cut away from a burn. I said a silent prayer that the man wouldn't wake up, and set to slicing the blackened skin away.

It's never a good idea to have a concerned loved one sitting idle while I try to heal someone, anyway. The well takes a long time to pump, something I've been grateful for on more than one occasion; it's a great distraction for frantic family members. I'd gotten all the dead skin off of the wound before the old man rushed back in, slopping water all over the floor. The fire sizzled as the old man hauled the dripping pot onto the boiling-hook.

I'd just started putting the anti-infection herbs on his back when the man woke. Understandably, the first thing he did was moan in pain. The left side of his face was pressed into the table so that he was facing me, the fire illuminating his features. At the pained sound from the patient, his uncle moved to kneel in front of him so that their faces were eye-level. "Nephew," the old man said, his voice shaking, "you're alright. This woman's a healer. She's helping you." He put a wrinkled hand against the man's cheek.

The man's jaw was clenched against the pain, it seemed he was determined to keep from making any more noise. I thought it was a stupid display of pride, but I was impressed at his restraint nonetheless. I myself know how badly burns can hurt, and I expected him to be screaming. I finally finished putting the salve on all of the affected areas of his back, securing the light fabric I buy especially for burns to the blisters. It's best to leave the deep burns open to the air. I leaned down so that the man wouldn't have to strain to see me as I said, "Now I need to treat your other side. We have to get you turned over, and it's going to hurt. Once you're on your back, we'll get you something for the pain." The man gulped, but nodded. I turned to his uncle. "I need your help steadying him as we turn him so that we don't rupture the blisters."

The injured man helped as much as he could, pushing down on the table with his arms so that we didn't have to lift his whole weight, but he was very weak. A pained hiss escaped him as the muscles strained, stretching the burns on his back and chest. Working as a team, the three of us finally got him propped up on his uninjured shoulder. He was facing away from me, so that when he finally tried to turn over onto his back, I had to support almost all of his weight. Unfortunately, at the moment he tried to turn, his strength left him completely. I was left to support his entire body using only my forearms, and my right hand ended up pushing directly on the blisters I had just bandaged. This time he did scream in agony before mercifully passing out again. I winced at knowing how much pain he was in, but I finally got him settled on his back. I spared a glance at his face, but didn't immediately notice more than the fact that he was younger than I thought he was, and he had a large scar taking up almost the entire left side. He was a young man, younger than me, even. He couldn't have been more than twenty. His chest was well built and muscular, obviously well fed and had some sort of physical training.

As I was telling the old man to do some inane job to get him out of the room again, something tugged at my memory. All over town, posters were pasted to buildings and food carts. Two fugitives of the Fire Nation were in the Earth Kingdom and had been rumored to be sighted only thirty kilometers from here. One was a banished prince with a distinctive scar on his face; the other was an old man, a disgraced war general. I froze, my gaze fixed on the scar obscuring the handsome face on my healing table. The old man was waiting for me to finish telling him his task when I fell silent. He lifted his eyebrows and said urgently, "What do you need me to do?"

I blinked and shook my head. Regardless of who these people were, I was a healer and they needed my help. The prince would die of infection or dehydration before he got to another healer. "I need you to get me the jar labeled "Pain" on the shelf behind you, it's a tea. Put it in one of the cups there," I pointed to the mantle above the fireplace where the teacups were lined up, "and pour boiling water in it. Let it steep for three minutes and—"

"Trust me, I know how to brew tea." With that, he was moving with confidence around the room. I set to repeating the process I'd used on the nephew's back. Once his injuries were all salved and bandaged, I looked over my work for patches that I'd missed or bandages that were soaked through already. Satisfied that I'd done all I could for the burns themselves, I shuddered at what I knew came next.

The uncle set the tea down on the small table under the window situated above the patient's head. I looked at the old man and said, "Now we have to wake him up so he can drink that."

The man looked at me in confusion. "If he's already asleep, why should we wake him to give him a pain treatment?"

"It's not the pain medication he needs now, but the water. A lot of his skin has been damaged, which means that water can seep out of the wounds. If we don't keep him hydrated, he won't be able to heal and he could die."

The old man grimaced, but nodded. He leaned over his nephew's face and said, "Nephew. You have to wake." He gently shook his uninjured shoulder, one of the only uninjured patches of skin from the young man's waist, up. It took a while, but the young man finally woke with another moan.

"Uncle," the young man croaked. I thought his voice must have been raw from screaming.

The old man squeezed his nephew's shoulder. "You need to drink some tea."

The young man sighed softly before rasping, "Uncle, I don't need tea. I need to sleep."

I stepped forward so that the man could look up at me as I said, "No, we need to keep you hydrated. You're losing fluids from your wounds."

He blinked at me and said, "Who are you?" The distrust was obvious in his voice.

Before I could reply, the old man said, "This is the woman who just saved your life. We can trust her."

I'm not sure how to arrange my face to look more innocent, but I tried. I guess it's the healer in me that always wants people to feel at ease around me. I smiled at the young man and said, "You can call me Rei. I make the tea myself. It has a special blend of herbs that dulls the senses. It'll help you sleep through the night."

I asked the old man to help hold his nephew's head while I tipped the tea into his mouth. After he gulped the first sip, he coughed weakly. "That's awful," he said.

I chuckled. "Yeah, I've heard that before, but people always ask for the recipe after the effects kick in." The old man laughed. His relief was tangible now that his nephew was through the worst of it.

Once he'd drained the cup of tea, I told his Uncle to fetch a pitcher of cool water from the well. One cup of tea wouldn't be enough to keep him hydrated. Once he was out of the room, I grabbed a pillow from under the table. "I'm going to lift your head," I told him. He tried to help me, but he winced once the burn on his neck was stretched. "No, let me," I said. He stopped straining and let his head fall into the crook of my arm with a sigh. Our faces were almost touching as I leaned over him to try to arrange the pillow under his head. To my everlasting shame, I blushed. Something about those eyes, I'd never seen eyes that shade of gold before. Even with one of them permanently narrowed, they were beautiful, and they were fixed on my face. When his uncle walked back into the room with the pitcher, I jerked away from him with my jaw clenched in embarrassment. The old man wore a smirk that had me wondering if maybe I should "accidentally" spill tea on him.

Midway into the third cup of water, the young man fell asleep. I retrieved a blanket from under the table and laid it over his legs, leaving his torso bare. I opened the shutters so the night air from the window could help cool his skin. I silently gestured for the uncle to follow me into the main part of my house. I live by myself when there isn't a patient in the healing room. As a result, my small house is really just one giant room. The area next to the healing room that houses my small sleeping pallet is screened off from the main living room/kitchen by two green folding panels. Sometimes I'm embarrassed by the sparseness of my home, but then I think that it would be more embarrassing to live with far more than I needed. My mother always told me to earn what I have and not to live to impress others. I put the batch of now cold rice and vegetables I had been eating back on the fire, along with a pot of tea. "Please, sit," I told the old man.

Once we were both seated at the table, I asked him, "So, what can I call you two?" I tried to phrase that delicately so it didn't sound like an interrogation. I'd imagined these two were kind of suspicious of people who asked their names, but the old man smiled at me.

"I'm Mushi. My nephew's name is Lee."

I smiled. "Mushi?"

"My mother had a great sense of humor," he said, patting his sizeable belly. We both laughed until a knock at the door sobered us like a splash of cold water. I gestured for him to go back into the room with his nephew, which he did, closing the door behind him. Luckily, I always close the windows on the house after sunset, so whoever was at the door wouldn't have been able to see into the room.

The knock sounded at the door again, followed by, "Rei, open up." I'd know that voice anywhere. Kenshin, the captain of the Fire Nation occupying force stationed here. My stomach dropped to the floor at the realization. I took a deep breath and glanced back towards the closed door of the healing room before sliding my front door open just enough to peek through.

I gave Kenshin the brightest smile I could and said, "Captain Kenshin. This is a surprise."

"Evening, Rei," he said with a sneer. Let me be clear on my relationship with the Fire Nation soldiers. I'm afraid of them, like everyone else is. I also hate them, like everyone else does. Kenshin is an especially disgusting representative of why I hate them. He's about forty, with a neatly trimmed neck beard and black eyes. He knows all about my parentage by a traitor Fire Nation soldier and a lowly Earth Kingdom woman, no matter that she was a skilled healer. As such, he treats me with extreme superiority. "We've been tracking a pair of fugitives tonight. You wouldn't happen to have seen any strangers around, have you?" he said, his eyes raking down the front of my shirt. I don't think he would actually consider sleeping with me, but he delighted in making me feel uncomfortable. My jaw clenched without my permission.

"Nope, I'm just finishing up my supper."

"I only ask because we injured one of them pretty bad in a fight. They managed to escape on an ostrich-horse after the other one blasted a couple trees to block our path. We figured they wouldn't get very far until they'd seen a healer…" he trailed off, his eyes narrowing.

"Well, I haven't—"

Just then, one of Kenshin's flunkies ran up to him and said breathlessly, "Sir, one of the men just spotted an ostrich-horse running toward the mountains."

Without even a backward glance, Kenshin and the other men jumped on their Komodo Rhinos and sped off toward the mountains. I sighed in relief, but said under my breath, "Oh no problem, Kenshin. Glad I could help, it's not like you interrupted."

When I turned back into the room, sliding the door closed behind me, I found Mushi staring at me with a stunned expression from the doorway of the healing room. "You… know who we are?" he breathed.

I lifted the corner of my mouth in a wry smile. "Let's face it, you're not too hard to recognize, General."

He gave a surprised chuckle. "No, I suppose not… but then, why would you help us?"

"I figure anyone the Fire Nation is hunting, is someone who deserves my help."

He chewed my words over for a long time before he nodded and moved toward the fire. He took the pot of rice off the hook and placed it in the middle of the table. Then, he took care of the tea while I sat at the table, suddenly exhausted. We shared a nice dinner together, outcast and fugitive.

Once we'd finished our meal and the dishes were washed, we sat in a comfortable silence at the table, sipping our tea and watching the fire. After a while, Mushi cleared his throat and said quietly, "I don't know how we can ever thank you for what you did tonight."

I smiled at him and said, "I love healing; it's what I do. You don't need to thank me for doing what I'm meant to."

"You are truly lucky to know where you belong."

I snorted at that. "I know what I'm supposed to do, but I didn't say I want to do it here."

His eyebrows knitted together at the bitterness in my words. "Then why do you stay? A healer could certainly find a welcoming home anywhere."

"Well, this house belonged to my mother. It's all I have left of her, this house and my training. Plus, I want to leave so I can escape the Fire Nation soldiers… but there is no escaping the Fire Nation anymore, is there?"

The old man gave me a sad, level stare. "I don't know, my dear… Your mother was a healer as well?"

I nodded. "Yes. The best in the Western Earth Kingdom, I'm told. She learned at the university in Ba Sing Se."

"You must be very proud."

I took a long drink of tea before answering. When I did, I couldn't quite keep the disgust out of my voice as I said, "She was a great healer." I set down my tea and rose to my feet. "Well, Mushi, I imagine you're very tired, and so am I. There's a sleeping mat just outside the back door, you can set it up wherever you'd like. Good night." I bowed to him and disappeared behind my green panels before he could even bow back. I know it was rude, but I hated talking about my mother. It's not that I hated _her_, but I just couldn't reconcile the woman I remembered with what I knew she'd done. She subjected herself and her daughter to a life of ridicule and solitude, and I wasn't even sure why. I dressed for bed quickly, but lay awake for along time, thinking. I listened to Mushi rummaging around for the cot and finally setting it up in front of the door to the room where his nephew was sleeping. Then, after his great weight settled on the cot with a few groans, he belched loudly and finally started to snore, and not very softly. I chuckled and wondered what _this_ man could have done to warrant a wanted poster from the Fire Nation. I probably should have found that out before I let the two in my house, but I meant what I said before. If the Fire Nation thinks they did something treasonous, then whatever they did must have been something good. To my very great surprise, I drifted off to sleep while listening to the old man's thunderous snores.

""""

The sun was streaming through the cracks in the window shutters when a loud crash from the healing room woke me up. I jerked to my feet, hair a mess and still in my loose sleeping pants and shirt, and ran towards the healing room. I tripped over Mushi, who was trying to roll onto his knees in front of the door. I flung open the door to find Lee lying on the floor, surrounded by broken jars and dishes. He was breathing hard, I assumed from the pain. I rushed over to him and tried to support his head with my hand. He looked up at me with eyes filled with pain.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?" I scolded him.

He gasped before saying, "I had to use the bathroom. I sat up fine, but I got lightheaded when I stood."

I looked him over quickly. "That's because you're not drinking enough water. You've ruptured a lot of your blisters. We have to get you back on the table so I can redress them."

"But I still have to use the bathroom!"

"I don't have one. You'd have to walk all the way to the outhouse, and you can't make it on your own. I have bedpans—"

He glared at me before saying, "I'm _not_ using a bedpan."

_Damn men and their stupid pride. _Before I could reply, his uncle finally stepped into the room and knelt at his nephew's feet. There wasn't room for him to get any closer. "Zuko! What were you thinking, why didn't you call for me?"

"Uncle!" The prince's eyes were furious as he glared at his uncle and then glanced at me to see if I'd caught the slip.

Iroh said, "She already knows who we are."

Zuko's narrowed eyes searched my face. "Then why—"

I cut him off, "I'm not answering any questions until you get back on that table. I've spent a lot of good medicine on you and I won't have it wasted by you killing yourself." I tried to give him my best no-nonsense expression.

His uncle chuckled and said, "I would listen to her, Zuko. She controls your pain treatment."

Zuko met my challenging stare with one of his own. "I'm going to the outhouse first. My uncle can help me."

I rolled my eyes in exasperation and said, "Fine, but if you pass out again, just know that I'll be the one picking pebbles out of your burns. And I can decide how much pain that will cause."

The corner of his mouth lifted in an appreciative smile. "Noted."

With his uncle's help, the two of them made it out my back door. Because a healer needs room to grow an herb garden, my house is well outside of town. Also, when I boil and mix the herbs into various medicines, it can really stink. My mother had the foresight to build the house in the middle of the woods, off the beaten track and far from the other townsfolk. So, I wasn't worried about anyone spotting the pair as they made their way to the outhouse. While they were gone, I put the water on the fire to boil for his tea. I said a prayer of thanks that he didn't smash the jar holding the pain mixture, then I set to cleaning up the mess the prince had made. I winced at losing so many herbs, but there was nothing I could do. I saved some that had fallen into piles, but a lot of it was mixed and you don't want to have unknown combinations in the medicine. I'd just finished pouring the last of it into the garbage bin when my patient and his uncle came slowly ambling into the room again. Zuko was behind his uncle, and I could see Iroh wincing at the death grip his nephew had on his shoulders. Zuko was staring at his feet and watching as they took each slow step. I washed my hands before moving to help Zuko sit on the edge of the table. I let my hand hover over his back, waiting to help him if he needed it, but he didn't. When he was finally seated and looked up to meet my eyes, I could see that he was in agony. "Can you stay sitting up like that?" I asked him.

He nodded and seemed to concentrate on just taking deep, steady breaths. I could hear his breath shake from the pain. I hurriedly brewed his tea and held it to his lips so he could drink. Instead, he reached to take the cup from me. I lifted my eyebrows but didn't say anything. If he wanted to cause himself more pain just so he didn't look weak, that was his right. While he drank the tea, I set to work removing the bandages on the shallower burns. All the ones on his back were ruptured, of course. I shook my head and told him I would have to wash his back to prevent infection. I keep my healing room very clean, but I didn't want to risk him picking anything up from his fall to the floor.

His uncle leaned against the side of the fireplace, watching me work. I glanced up at him before turning my attention to his nephew's back again. "So," I asked him, "do I call you Mushi or Iroh?"

I heard the smile in his voice as he said, "I think you can call me Iroh."

Zuko said, "I don't think that's a good idea."

"Well, your fake name isn't 'Mushi'," said Iroh with a chuckle. "Besides, there's no one around to hear."

I smiled at him and said, "Well, Iroh, I think you passed the chicken coop when you went outside? There should be some eggs this morning if you want to get breakfast started."

"Ah, eggs sound delicious," he said as he walked out of the room.

As I reapplied the salve to his back, I saw Zuko glance at the garbage bin. He sighed softly and said very reluctantly, "Sorry I guess. You know, for… that."

I couldn't help but smile at how uncomfortable he sounded. "I'm going to take a shot in the dark and assume you aren't very used to apologizing for things."

"Well, I did apologize, didn't I?" he snapped. I lifted my eyebrows at his back and stayed silent. After a while, he sighed again, with more force. "I mean," he said quietly, "I guess I'm not."

"It's ok. I have an herb garden so it won't be too hard to replace what I lost." I finished up the last bandage on his back, once again leaving the deep wounds open to the air.

I moved around the table to work on washing his chest. I could feel his eyes on me, but I didn't want to be caught in that gaze again, especially not while I have to be his healer.

"How long will it take to heal?" he asked.

I shrugged without taking my eyes from his burn. "It depends. You're a bender, so the process will be a bit faster than for someone normal, but the one across your chest and the one across your back and up your shoulder are very deep." I applied the salve to the severe burn on his chest. "Did you feel that?"

"No."

I nodded. "Your nerve endings have been destroyed." I finally looked up at him to say, "You'll have some pretty severe scarring."

The corner of his mouth lifted into a humorless smile as he said, "I'm used to that."

Caught in his gaze again, I lifted my hand to hover above the red skin next to his eye. "Do you mind?" I asked. He shook his head. Lightly, I ran my fingertips across the puckered skin. I think I stopped breathing as I examined the scar. He was lucky he didn't lose his eye. The scar was a few years old; he must have gotten it long before he was a fugitive of the Fire Nation. I wondered how a prince could have suffered such a horrible injury.

"Why are you doing this?" he asked.

I removed my hand and went back to applying the salve to his burns. "It's like I told your Uncle, if you guys are wanted by the Fire Nation, it must have been for doing something good."

"You're saying that anything the Fire Nation approves of is wrong?"

I nodded. "I've never seen them do anything that benefitted other people. I have to assume that they just naturally hate everything good."

"Not everyone from the Fire Nation is evil," he said, offended.

"If I believed they were, I wouldn't have let _you_ in my house. I don't think every person from the Fire Nation is evil, just the vast majority of those I've met." I secured a bandage with a little more force than was necessary and I heard his sharp intake of breath. "Sorry," I muttered. I heard Iroh banging around in the kitchen and I said, "I'm going to go help with breakfast. I want you to drink plenty of water and _rest_. If you need anything, call me." I put the pitcher of water on the table next to him, along with a full cup. I turned to leave.

"What's your name?" he said as I reached the door.

"Rei. I told you last night, but you were kind of in and out."

He nodded and said quietly, "Thank you, Rei." I gave him a small smile before leaving the room, leaving the door open so I could hear if he called.

""""

The next two days passed much in the same way. Zuko was healing even faster than I thought he would, and I had to admit that I would be sorry to see them go. Once I showed Iroh around the kitchen and the gardens, he delighted in preparing the food and cleaning up the house. I was happy with this arrangement because, to be honest, I hate cleaning. It also left me with plenty of spare time to try to work out the enigma that was his nephew. I'd make sure Zuko was drinking plenty of water and not too much of the pain tea, and I'd ask him about the Fire Nation and all the places he'd travelled to. I really wanted to know the story of his banishment and how he'd become a fugitive, but I had a feeling he wouldn't want to talk about it. I'd never been more than 20 kilometers from this village, so I was eager to hear about the world. I thought he'd get irritated by my questions, but with nothing else to occupy his time except thinking about his pain, he seemed grateful for the company. Still, he hardly ever smiled unless it was twisted in irony. I found myself wondering what it would look like to see him really smile.

On the third night they stayed with me, Iroh was already snoring in the main house and I was sitting on a stool next to the fireplace in the healing room while Zuko sat on the edge of the table. I was asking him, if everything in the Northern Water Kingdom is made of ice, whether or not the beds melt when you sleep on them. He smirked and was about to answer when the cup he'd been holding slipped out of his grasp. Without thinking about it, he bent quickly to catch it. A bender's reflexes are incredible, but I was worried that the sudden movement would have torn the fresh skin on his back. I stepped quickly to his side, immediately putting my hand on his back to make sure that his skin was still intact. My other hand was resting on his shoulder, and I felt it when he turned his head to look at me. "I'm fine," he said. I looked up from where my hand rested on his back to see that his face was inches from mine. My eyes went wide and I froze. I saw his eyes flick down to my lips before he closed the distance and pressed his lips to mine.

I felt the heat from his breath, so much warmer than a normal man's, against my mouth. His hand slid from the tabletop to my back, pressing me closer to him as his mouth moved against mine. Just as I was about to lose myself to the sensation, my father's face came into my mind. Zuko's hair is the same shade of dark brown that his was. I remember my father pressing his lips to my forehead- his breath had the same heat. A firebender's heat. Then a long-forgotten memory of my father giving my mother a kiss beside the herb garden while I, just a child then, watched from the window. My mouth stilled against Zuko's as I thought, _I'm just like her. _I jerked my face from his lips and tried to step away, but his hand was insistent against my back. He looked confused as he said, "What's wrong?"

I shook my head and tried to step away again, and was stopped again. "I just- I can't do this."

His hand tried to bring me close again. "Rei, I won't hurt you…"

I was starting to panic as his face came close to mine again. Visions of my father trying to fight back against the other firebenders flew before my eyes. His fists sending flames at one after another, but there were too many and before I could close my eyes, the captain sent a deadly blade of fire into his heart. My mother screamed beside me. Zuko's arm suddenly felt like a prison and I lost touch with where I was. Panicked, I pushed against his shoulders and to my horror, I felt the heat from my chest rush down my arms and a small burst of fire erupted from my palms. I heard him grunt in pain, but the tears were flowing fast now, and I turned and ran out of the house towards the woods, sparks still flying from my hands.

I ran until the trees were thick around me and fell sobbing to my knees. I buried my smoldering palms in the loose dirt to try and extinguish the flames. I felt the cold earth around my fingers and wished with all my heart that I could have been born an earthbender, or at least a normal person, someone who doesn't have to be tied to an element, just a healer from a small Earth Kingdom village… someone whose life the Fire Nation never touched. I tried to calm down, to slow my heart, but it continued to slam against my chest as the memories refused to fade. I don't know how long I sat there, but the moon was high when I heard footsteps behind me. They were slow and shuffling, so I knew without turning that it was Zuko. When they stopped behind me, I said, "You shouldn't be walking so far."

"You aren't really that far from the house." When I had first heard him speak, I thought his voice was raspy from screaming, but I think it's always been that way. When he speaks quietly, his voice scratches like leaves across stone. "You're a firebender," he said.

I squeezed my eyes shut against the shame. "Don't call me that," I whispered. The tears flooded my eyes again.

"Why?" He sounded confused. "It's a gift to be a—"

"It's a curse!" I ground out through my teeth. "I hate it. I hadn't done it in years, then you come along and…" I pulled my hands out of the earth to see my palms were still smoking.

"I don't understand. Why wouldn't you want this?" Of course he wouldn't understand. He was a prince of the Fire Nation and to be a firebender was the greatest honor there was in his eyes.

My ears were ringing at how tightly my jaw was clenched as I stared down at my hands. "Because it forever ties me to the Fire Nation." I took a deep breath and rose to my feet, turning to face him. I curled my hands into fists and tried to concentrate on calming down. I looked at his purposefully blank stare and my heart finally slowed. I glanced down to see that smoke had stopped rising from my fists and relaxed my jaw. I could feel the tears falling, but didn't do anything to stop them.

His eyes moved down my body, I assumed examining my green Earth Kingdom clothes, before he said, "How is it possible?"

As I grew calmer, I felt exhaustion creeping in. With a sad, tired smile, I said, "I won't answer any questions until you're back on the table."

He didn't smile, but he nodded and moved to the side so I could pass. When I paused next to him, he put a hand on my shoulder to take some of his weight while we walked back to the house. I thought I'd gotten much farther into the woods, but he was right- I hadn't gotten more than a few feet. Just outside the door, I heard Iroh's snores still thundering through the house. "He can sleep through anything, can't he?" I said.

Zuko smirked toward his uncle as we walked past him. "I once saw him fall asleep in an engine room."

Once we got Zuko sitting back on the table, I took a deep breath and steeled myself to look at the damage I'd done. Two hand-sized burns were now glaring at me from above his collarbones. I ran a hand across my cheeks to wipe away the tears and set to salving the burns, but before I could open the jar, Zuko's hand covered mine. "Tell me," he said, and his voice sounded like he was used to people following his orders.

I shook my head, my eyes still on his hand as it rested on mine, but whispered, "My father was a firebender and a traitor. He was part of the original occupying force in our village, back when my mother had just set up her practice here. He was the one who was sent to inspect her home and I guess they fell in love."

"Was she an earthbender?" Zuko asked, confusion in his voice.

"No, just a healer."

Zuko paused before saying, "Then that's not illegal. Why would he be a traitor?"

"Because he tried to desert. My mother told me that he started to resent what the Fire Nation stood for, the things it had made him do. They kept their relationship secret, so he snuck away from his company and hid here in disguise." Zuko stayed silent after that. I guessed he didn't want to tell me his actual opinion on deserters, which I found interesting considering his current status to the Fire Nation. "They actually lived a few years in peace… even had me." I took my hand out from under Zuko's and deliberately set to work on the burns I'd caused. I thought he would be satisfied with what I'd told him. My story's really not that different from thousands of other stories you'll hear in taverns across the Earth Kingdom. Some of the details are very different, but the ending is always the same: _The Fire Nation destroyed my family._ It gets to be so that you don't even get more than a sympathetic glance. Usually, you just get: _Yeah, whose family haven't they destroyed? _Traitors aren't well liked in the Fire Nation. They're not too well liked anywhere, but the Fire Nation really hates them, just like they hate everything else. Sometimes I wonder how my father ever learned _not _to hate. I never got to ask him, and my mother didn't like to talk about it.

We'd both been quiet for so long that I jumped when Zuko said, "I still don't understand why you freaked out like that."

I blinked and widened my eyes at the bluntness of his remark. Offended, I said, "I _freaked out_ because you reminded me of my father. Then I started thinking about the day he was killed and I… I don't know, I just… I hate firebenders."

"He was killed?"

I finished bandaging his burns while I thought about whether or not to keep talking. It was strange, I was offended by his frank curiosity and lack of sympathy, but also intrigued because he wasn't pitying me. I didn't get the usual _Yeah, it happens_ or the less common but certainly heard of _Oh, you poor thing. Cry on my shoulder until I can decide whether or not your family deserved what it went through_, but he was honest. Simply put, he just wanted to know. Everyone else in town knew my story, so I've never really talked about it. The soldiers here spread it as a cautionary tale. I guess the townsfolk did too and I can't blame them. I know if I ever had a daughter, the first lesson I would teach her would be to never get too close to any of the soldiers.

"Yeah," I continued slowly, "his captain finally discovered us all. He was ambushed in front of the house. He tried to fight, but there were so many. My mother was whipped for harboring a criminal and my father was buried outside of town." Zuko grimaced a little bit. It's the lowest dishonor for a Fire Nation citizen to be buried instead of cremated. My mother and I didn't mind, though. Earth Kingdom citizens are always buried. "I was four… I thought I'd forgotten it."

Zuko was quiet for a long time after I finished. I started to put the herbs away and leave the room when he said, "You shouldn't bury it, you know."

I turned back and asked, "What do you mean?"

"Your bending. Everything. The reason it bursts out and hurts you is because you don't address it."

I blinked. "Thanks for your advice, but there's a reason I don't bend. There's a reason I don't think about my parents."

He looked at me with a patient stare and said, "That doesn't make sense. You could be so much more than a healer. If you embrace your anger instead of keeping it locked up—"

I threw my hands up and yelled, "I don't want to be more than a healer! I don't want to be angry!"

"But you _are_ more than a healer, and you _are _angry! Don't you get it? Denying those things won't make them go away, it'll only make them control you more." His voice was rising to match my angry one.

"Thanks, but I don't need advice from some banished fire prince with a superiority complex. Drink your damn tea and get better. The sooner you're healed, the sooner you can leave." With that, I turned on my heel and slammed the door behind me. Iroh's snores had stopped and I was sure the old man had heard everything, but I was past caring. I curled up on my pallet and tried to keep my tears silent, only allowing an occasional sniffle. I listened for Zuko stirring in the healing room, half hoping he would come out after me and apologize. Then I remembered that I didn't care what he did anymore… It was a long time before I calmed down enough for sleep to envelop me.

The next morning I woke later than usual. The sun was already flooding the room, but I lay there and listened for the sounds of my housemates. It was only my attempt to prolong the inevitable- I knew they were gone. He probably would have woken his uncle not long after I fell asleep and left quietly in the night. I rose with a sigh and wiped a tear roughly off my cheek, angry at myself. I looked in the healing room and the first thing I noticed was that the jar of pain herbs was gone, as was a good amount of my bandages. I was feeing strangely numb and couldn't quite summon the anger at being robbed by these men that I'd helped so much. I knew that if I checked the kitchen I would find some food missing, maybe a kettle or two gone. I thanked the spirits that I didn't have an ostrich-horse for them to steal.

I smelled smoke and looked down to see it curling from my palms. The tears rolled fresh down my cheeks and I sank to the floor and let the sadness take me, my hands held out in front of me, the smoke twirling endlessly upwards.

**Please review! But please, keep them constructive. OC's are kind of iffy sometimes, so how did mine do? I originally wrote this as a oneshot, but I have a few ideas for a continued story, so if that's something you would like to see, let me know!**

**This is my second version. I noticed a few things that I wanted to tweak and I'm hoping now it'll have a little more appeal. **


	2. Truce

** Due to language and dark themes like rape and torture, I might have to change this story's rating to M, but I'm not sure. Anyway, I hope you enjoy and let me know what you think the rating should be.**

"No, no, no," I whimpered, staring at the sparks rising from my hands. I ran across the kitchen and shoved my hands into the washbasin, trying to control my breathing. This time, I hadn't even been doing anything stressful, or even out of the ordinary. Ever since my outburst with Zuko, it was like all my control over my (it was hard to even think the word) bending… had been obliterated. When an animal in the woods startled me, my hands would smolder, itching to release a stream of defensive fire. When I dropped a dish or tripped over a rug and my heart rate increased, the smoke would rise immediately, as if my subconscious was now on edge, preparing for anything that could potentially be a threat. I'd been trying some stress-relief exercises and they seemed to help. I'd feel the heat begin in my chest and I would sit down right where I was and breathe, think calming thoughts and focus on the breath going in and out of my body. Usually, it worked almost immediately. The sparks would disappear and the smoke would grow thinner. This time, however, caught me by surprise. At least when I dropped a dish or heard something in the woods, I could tell myself that the rush of awareness triggered my fire. This time, though, I'd just been folding some newly made bandages. It was getting harder and harder for me to predict, and even harder for me to control.

It had been almost a week since my two houseguests had left. The intervening time after Zuko and his uncle left was almost painfully quiet and empty. I did what I could to stay busy, but Iroh was a big personality, and even though Zuko didn't say much, he still had a commanding presence. My mind drifted back to the last night they were with me and every time I thought of his lips on mine, the smell of smoke would flood the air and I'd have to clear my mind, or at least bury my hands in dirt or water, whichever was closer.

The bandages were strewn over my dining table and my hands were still soaking in the washbasin when a knock sounded at my door. I cursed softly, looking anxiously at my hands under the water, but I couldn't tell if they were back to normal. I stayed quiet, hoping against hope that whoever it was didn't need me to heal anything. However, there's really not any other reason that someone would come to see me. As whoever it was knocked again, I took a deep breath and pulled my hands slowly out of the water. I sagged with relief when I saw that they were back to their unthreatening state. If any of the people from town knew my secret, it would be the end of my healing career, in this village at least. It would be very difficult to establish myself in another town the way I have here, and it takes years for an herb garden to produce as much as mine was now. I wiped my hands on the cloth lying next to the basin and went to answer the door.

It was Jaela, a woman I'd met once or twice in town, and her young son. I didn't know her well, but she was always kind to me, outwardly at least. She was a thin woman, and always seemed to look tired. I guess it was because of the little ball of energy she had restrained by his shirt collar. Her son had the same tan skin and brown hair as his mother, but he looked darker due to the film of dirt he was covered in. Jaela gave me a tired smile and said, "Hello, Rei. My son skinned his knee on some rocks today. It isn't bad, but I don't want to take the risk of it festering."

I looked down at the boy's knee and noticed a trickle of blood making its way down his shin. "Of course. I'll just get it cleaned and put some anti-infection herbs on it. Right through here." I led them into my healing room, trying hard not to think about its last occupant.

"Mother, I don't want to!" the boy whined.

"Now Sinja, I told you not to go near the mine. You fell because you disobeyed your mama, and now you have to pay for it." With that, Jaela lifted the boy up onto the table, where he sat with his arms crossed and a pout on his face. I smirked as I filled the basin with fresh water from the pitcher and gathered the right herbs.

I finally settled on the stool and scooted up in front of the boy, his mother's hand rested on his shoulder to keep him still. To distract him while I washed out his wound, I asked, "So Sinja, how did you skin your knee?"

"My friend and me were practicing our swords," he said, eyeing my wash rag carefully. I glanced up at him again. He couldn't have been more than six, far too young to begin learning swordplay.

"Your swords?" I started to wipe away the dirt and pebbles that were stuck to the skin with rocks. He cried out and tried to squirm away, but his mother held him in place. "Where did you get swords?"

The boy was whimpering, but still answered my question. "Well, they're not real swords. They're just sticks, but we pretend. We want to be ready for when the Avatar comes and needs us to fight!" he finished proudly.

"Sinja!" his mother scolded, "What did I tell you about talking like that?"

"It's alright," I told her. I finished cleaning out the wound and put the paste of anti-infection herbs on the scrape. The mixture doesn't sting, so Sinja was much more relaxed. "You know, Sinja, the Avatar hasn't been seen in a hundred years."

The boy rolled his eyes at me. "Don't you know anything? He's back! Everyone in town is talking about it. He defeated the Fire Nation up north!"

Being somewhat removed from the town gossip, I was taken aback by his confidence. I took a couple deep breaths and concentrated on quelling the heat that always seemed to bubble just below the surface now. I glanced toward Jaela to ascertain how much of her son's statement was imagination, but she was just glaring at her son. I finished the treatment on his leg and stood, holding out a hand to help the boy off the table. He hopped down and ran immediately out the front door and attempted to climb a tree. I sent a silent _thanks_ toward the spirits for keeping my hands cool as I treated him. I walked Jaela to the door and said, "I know it'll be hard, but just try to keep it clean. It isn't deep and should already be scabbed over by tomorrow. If you get nervous about it, please come back to see me."

"Thank you, Rei." She put two coppers in my hand, which I accepted. "I'm sure we'll be back," she said with a sigh as we both watched Sinja fall out of the tree and bounce right back up for another try.

She'd taken a step outside my door when I said, "Jaela, wait." She turned back, her eyebrows raised. "I was just wondering about what Sinja said… about the Avatar?"

Jaela ran a nervous hand over her hair. "Oh, yes. There have been some rumors that the Avatar was sighted up near the North Pole. However, I wouldn't put too much stock in those stories. They're just wishful thinking. I've told Sinja to put it out of his mind, but he's as stubborn as his father was."

My smile must have seemed a bit distracted as I asked, "When do they say he was sighted?"

"Oh, not long ago. Maybe a couple weeks." Jaela was obviously anxious to leave as her son fell out of the tree a second time and headed into the woods, away from the path to town. "Sinja!" she scolded. The boy turned back toward his mother and after a quick goodbye from Jaela, they headed down the path, her hand firm on his shoulder. I didn't mind, my thoughts were already turning to a conversation I had a week ago. Zuko had been telling me about his travels to the North Pole. He never said exactly why he went there, just that he was ordered to. If the rumors were true, Zuko would have been there around the same time as the Avatar. My mother had told me stories about the Avatar, the wonderful things he or she could do, but so much time had passed since the last known Avatar was alive, the idea really seemed more like legend than history to me. It was every Earth Kingdom citizen's wish that the Avatar would return and rid us of the Fire Nation rule, but those were just dreams. However, a part of me desperately wanted those rumors to be true. If the Avatar really was alive, it seemed like an outrageous coincidence that a Fire Nation prince happened to be at the North Pole at the same time as the Avatar. I smelled smoke again and didn't even bother to look down at my hands before crouching down and burying them in the dirt, my breaths slow and even.

I had just closed the last shutter against the coming night when I again heard a knock at my door. "Well, aren't I popular," I mumbled under my breath and I went to slide open the door. I let out a soft gasp as I realized it was Kenshin who stood before me. "Captain Kenshin. This is a surprise," I managed to say. I glanced behind him to see how many men he'd brought with him, but was surprised to see that he appeared to be alone.

He gave me the leer that I've come to expect from him. "It's tax time, Rei. I need five silvers."

My jaw dropped open. "Tax time isn't until next month and it's three silvers!"

Kenshin leaned against my doorframe and I took a step back, trying to keep a fair amount of distance between us. "Things change. The great Fire Lord needs your support, especially after what happened at the North Pole."

Fear crept up inside me as I started to smell smoke. I focused on my breathing and hid my hands behind my back, praying Kenshin would dismiss the smell. "I don't have five silvers right now, Captain, I just had to buy new bandages. I only have three silvers, but theFire Lord can take them." With that, I turned back into my kitchen, trying my best to keep my hands hidden. I reached up into the cupboard and took out almost all of my money, noticing that only a thin line of smoke was trailing from my fingertips. I tried my best to calm down, and after fiddling around with the money for a little while, trying to kill time, the smoke finally disappeared. I turned to walk back to Kenshin, but shrieked in surprise as I walked right into him. He must have followed me into the house and was now looking me up and down, his disgusting gaze lingering on my breasts.

"You know, I do need five silvers, Rei… if you don't have them, maybe you could earn them," he growled. His rough fingers brushed aside a strand of hair from my neck and I started to shake. I don't have a lot of experience with men, but I have enough to know that evil look in his eye. He wanted me, I always knew he did, but I never thought he would act on his longing. He's a Fire Nation captain, and hates the Earth Kingdom.

"Captain, please, just take the silvers and go," I'm ashamed to say my voice shook.

He stepped closer so that his chest was touching mine. I was backed up against the counter and couldn't move. "No, no," he whispered. I smelled smoke again and pressed my palms together behind my back, the money growing hot in my grasp. "You've been playing with me for too long, peasant. Now, you're gonna get what you've been asking for." He grabbed the back of my neck so hard that I gasped from the pain. He used the opportunity to shove his mouth against mine, thrusting his slimy tongue inside my mouth. I felt the heat from his breath just like I felt Zuko's, but I was more afraid than I ever was of the prince. The money clanged against the counter as I dropped it and shoved against Kenshin's chest as hard I could, trying to wrench my mouth away from his. His huge body didn't even budge; he just ground his hips against mine, seeking his own pleasure and finding it in my pain and panic. I had no doubt what he would do to me if I stopped fighting, and I knew in that same instant that I couldn't fight him off me. I couldn't stop it from happening. He would use me and probably dispose of me and I'd never see Zuko again. I felt the blind fury replacing fear as I thought of how Zuko had kissed me, so gently. Kenshin's hand moved to grip my bottom and I let out a furious growl as I felt the heat rise in my chest. "That's it," he sighed against my mouth, "You know you want this." The heat grew almost painful, but this time, instead of burying it and calming it, I embraced it. I let the warmth flow through my limbs and burst out against his chest. A blinding ball of fire erupted between our bodies as Kenshin let out a wail of pain and fell backward. I looked down at my hands to see them each engulfed in orange flames, but it didn't hurt. The only thing I felt in that moment was gratitude. A crackling above my head drew my gaze toward the ceiling, and I saw that the roof thatching had caught fire. I threw the water in the basin up toward it, but it had already spread, the dry thatching acting as the perfect fuel.

"No!" I shouted. The roof was covered in flames faster than I could have imagined, and I knew that there was no saving it. I ran toward the open door, but stopped just outside and turned to look back at Kenshin's unconscious form and considered saving him. Then I asked myself why, and kept walking. I didn't get twenty feet from the house when soldiers started to emerge running from the woods. I stopped in my tracks, too surprised to do much more than raise my flaming hands when one of them caught both my wrists, shoving them behind my back and turning me to face the burning house.

One of the soldiers that I didn't recognize stopped at my front door and shouted, "Captain! Are you in there?"

I heard a muffled moan from inside and the soldier ran into the building, emerging a few seconds later, dragging Kenshin's body behind him. Immediately after they cleared the doorway, the roof finally gave way, collapsing in a shower of red sparks and smoke. The shadows from the huge fire made the trees around us dance and sway like they were alive. I could still feel the heat on my hands and I knew that they were on fire, but the soldier at my back was holding my wrists with one hand while he calmed my flames with his own bending with the other. His hand encircled mine, keeping the flames to a minimum. Fear started to build in me again as I realized that I was captured by the Fire Nation soldiers, and I had just attacked their captain. Just then, Kenshin was sitting up with the help of the soldier who saved him. The others were in defensive positions around me.

Kenshin finally looked up at me and said, "That one attempted to kill me. She's a firebender and an attempted murderer." I started to shake again as he slowly made his way to his feet. I didn't hurt him as badly as I thought, and he was steadier on his feet than I'd hoped. He stalked over to me and shoved his face up close to mine. I clenched my jaw to keep from spitting at him. "You fucked up, girlie," he growled. "You're just as useless and disgusting as your father was and you don't deserve to bend. I'll have to make sure no one ever wants to touch you again. Hold her down!" he barked at the man holding me. My legs were kicked out from under me and I landed hard on my face, my hands still held behind me. Kenhin grabbed my shoulders and turned me over, seizing my hands before I could even move them. Two soldiers grabbed my arms, pinning them on the ground straight out, palms down. I could see the columns of smoke rising from them, but they were useless to me. Kenshin moved to straddle my waist and he knocked the wind out of me as he dropped his weight onto my stomach, pinning my legs under him. "Hold her legs, just in case," he told the men behind him.

I never knew terror like the kind I was feeling as firebenders held my limbs down, spread eagled, and Kenshin leaned over me to leer at my face. I could smell his singed hair and see the smoke rising behind him from the only home I'd ever known and I wanted nothing more than to die before he could take me. I prayed he'd be quick about it and leave me to the spirits. I felt tears prick behind my eyes and clenched my lids shut against them. Kenshin would never see me cry again. I turned my face away from him and pressed my cheek into the dirt. "Good, Rei," he said, and I winced when his hand pressed against my cheek to shove my face even more firmly into the ground. "I don't want you to move, understand? It'll be much easier for you, trust me," he sounded like he was almost trying to soothe me.

"Captain," said the soldier holding my left arm. "I don't think this is right—"

"Shut up, or you'll get the same."

I felt fabric rip across my chest and felt the cool night air on my bare skin. Then, I saw a blindingly bright light from behind my eyelids a split second before a pain more intense than any I've ever known burst across my chest. The last thing I remembered was hearing my own piercing scream before the world went black.

""""

I woke up in the dirt, my mind unable to register anything but the pain. As my eyes opened to the bright daylight, I groaned and raised my hand to my chest. I sat up slowly, pain blossoming across my entire body, and I knew they must have beaten me. I didn't remember anything past what they did to my chest, but it felt like two of my left ribs were cracked, and I could feel the bruises along my legs and arms. I could barely move my right arm without sending stabs of pain along my chest, so I carefully sat up and surveyed the damage. My house was almost completely gone, only a few beams and clay pots remained. I could see straight through to the herb garden, which was nothing but charred remains. The only structure left standing was my outhouse. I finally did allow myself to cry when I thought of how much work and devotion my mother put into that house and how many hours she spent tending the herb garden. All gone in one night, with one man's sick desires. I braced myself to look down at my chest, and when I did, I finally broke down into sobs. Kenshin had branded the Fire Nation symbol into my chest, the flames reaching up onto my neck. As if they wanted to cement the idea that I was Fire Nation through and through, my palms burst into flame.

I don't know how long I sat there, but finally, my flames extinguished and my tears dried. I looked around at my home again, and finally stood, wincing at the pain. I tried to find some supplies that might have survived the fire, but the only things I found that could be of use was a single iron boiling pot under the remains of the healing table, and a couple silver pieces I picked out of the ashes. I did my best to tie my shirt together so that my burn was covered, and secured the pot around my neck with a makeshift sling. Taking one last look around my little clearing, I straightened my shoulders and hobbled down the path that led west. I knew there was no way I could rebuild here. Not really because of the amount of work involved, but more because if I ever saw Kenshin's face again, I wanted it to be when I could kill him. The anger rose in me, drowning out the pain and fanning the warmth rising in my chest. I smelled the smoke from my fingertips and raised them in front of my face, thinking for the first time that maybe my firebending could serve a purpose after all.

**Now before you get nervous, this story will not be only about Rei, though she will be the main character. **

**I was going to leave this story as an oneshot, but I got some requests to continue and honestly, I couldn't stop thinking about what would happen to Rei and Zuko. **

** Please review if you would like to read more!**


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